1. Field of the Invention
The technical field of the present invention is that of illuminating and/or signaling devices for automotive vehicles, and more particularly that of internal parts made of plastic equipping such devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
A headlamp mounted on an automotive vehicle is conventionally composed of a housing closed by a transparent element thus bounding an internal volume in which a light source, a focusing device and components that participate in the delivery of a photometric function are found.
Certain of these components receive rays from the sun, which enter into the headlamp via the transparent element. In such a situation, the focusing device concentrates rays from the sun on these components, which may lead to these components degrading under the action of the rays from the sun when these rays are at least partially focused. Such a situation is encountered when the vehicle equipped with this headlamp is in a horizontal position whereas the sun is high above the horizon line.
This problem was corrected in the prior art by placing an opaque shield on the focusing element, which shield prevents rays from the sun entering. Such a shield forms a sort of eyelid against rays from the sun. Although satisfactory with regard to the aforementioned problem, such a solution is not completely acceptable as it decreases the area passed through by the light beam, especially when the latter forms a “high” beam since the opaque shield blocks the passage of at least a portion of the beam generated by the light source.
Thus, the most exposed components are manufactured from a metal capable of withstanding the temperature increase resulting from this focusing. This is especially the case for a cutting-off device installed in the headlamp with a view to defining a cut-off in a “low” beam.
However, using a metal makes it harder to produce precise complex shapes that have the small sizes that are required for a cutting-off device when the latter is combined with very wide aperture lenses. It is then necessary to carry out machining rework to produce these complex and precise shapes.
Apart from being difficult to carry out, this reworking is expensive. Moreover, it is difficult to make machining rework compatible with the production rates of low-cost parts intended for the automotive industry.
What is needed, therefore, is a system and method that overcomes one or more of the problems in the prior art.